28 Millenia Late
by squirrelboy1
Summary: A living Relic sent into space as part of 31 thousand year old experiment, awakens in the Grim Darkness of the far future, was the experiment a success? what does he think of the current state of humanity, and will he be able to carve a new destiny here for both himself, and all of mankind? Rated T for Mild Language
1. Chapter 1

(Reserve battery power running low: Disengaging Cryo Stasis on pod 1, reactor repairs necessary) rang out the hollow mechanical woman's voice. A product of 3 centuries of advancement in text to speech devices. Beads of moisture began to run down his face as he slumped down out of the pod. His muscles long atrophied. Henry slumped to the ground in a stupor. Breathing out cold, incredibly stale air, He collapsed onto the floor and soon fainted into silent dreams.

Even before entering the pod he had been one of the oldest humans alive, at least to his knowledge. His dreams took him back, back to his youth at the turn of the 25th Century only 4 centuries after Humanity achieved genetic immortality, thousands of years before he would enter the pod that he now lay below. He saw his university where he first discovered his love of science and exploration, a field that took on a whole new meaning later in the dawn of space travel. He saw his first love, whom he had married for over 2 millennia; he saw her death in a tragic transport accident. After that he threw himself deeper into his work and despite myriad discoveries he never felt satisfied. He arrived at the colonies at Alpha Centauri and a dozen other worlds, finally returning to earth when he heard of a shocking new discovery. Another dimension, layered over their own. Travel through it would allow humanity to achieve heights unreached in all their years until today. He rode one of these ships, and soon enough once these "warp drives" were in use, humanity met their first opponents in the galactic game, a dangerous race called the Kyell. He himself fought in one of the mighty battleships of humanity against their biological monstrosities, and ultimately humanity proved victorious, though thinking of the genocide that followed always made him sick to his stomach. Humanity continued to expand meeting and conquering dozens of new races, and this was when the first psyonics began to appear. Capable of telepathy and guiding ships on longer trips into the warp, they allowed humanity to succeed where other species failed. Through some genetic modification it was even possible to produce extremely well-tuned psykers as psychic genes were modified, and these genetic codes were distributed across the species. It was discovered later, that the older one is the more powerful these psychic genes became, this could be amplified even further through infusion in a "warp regulator" a creation that drew in the energy psychics used enhancing the gene, and this led to his current position. He had always been a daredevil of a sort since Mary died. And despite almost 5000 years of overworking himself and risking his life he had had enough of it. Thus he volunteered for an experiment to test the effects of long term Criostasis warp infusion on human psychic capability. The pod was to be reopened in the year 12000, 3000 years after he entered it. The ship built on a warp matter cycling reactor could hypothetically function forever, in defiance of entropy. It even featured a cold fusion backup drive that could run for tens of thousands of years. He remembered stepping into the pod, and the blackness overtaking him

That's also when he woke up. Laying wet and naked on the plasticite floor panels the Cryo pod behind him slowly crackling with electricity, had the blasted ship failed and woken him up early? He wandered aimlessly down the hall, dragging what was left of his atrophied body with him. He spotted an interface on the wall; there he could talk to the ship.

"Oa,*cough* status report?"

Silence

"Dammit"

He remembered the rough layout of the ship, making his way slowly down to the reactor core through several maintenance stairways, his body aching every step. Not to mention he was cold, and the air blown gently through the maintenance section was unpleasant below. He looked down at what had once been a pristine trans warp 9000 warp matter conversion engine, a hole ripped through its side like the hull of the Titanic, though looking around he could not see any signs of damage to the rest of the room. Finally he saw the cold fusion backup. Displaying a power bar below 10% he found the command key and opened fuel storage. Slowly removing a deuterium/Gadolinium cylinder from within before placing it in a side dock which removed the mixture inside with a slurp, before refilling the cylinder with the ship's emergency hydrogen. He replaced the cylinder in its place, and slid the storage tray back in. The ship burst to life. Emergency lights replaced with the bright ceiling ones, and Oa began initiating its reboot process.

"Hello Mr. Henry I am glad to see you returned from Cryosleep"

"I'm not happy Oa; if I'm out early the experiment will be botched."

"That's hardly a worry sir" a series of whirring noises followed as data trays were moved into place and checked

"Given the current processed amount of hydrogen since the main reactor imploded, the experiment is approaching 28 thousand years late."

Henry almost fell over, managing to steady himself on the main reactors plasteel carcass.

"28 thousand years!?, and no one sent the order to pull me out?"

"Human contact using required methods became silent around 11000 Anno Domini sir, other Human transmissions have continued, but on channels not approved for release orders."

Henry was struck dumb as the thought of how predictable this was hit him. In almost 7000 years of life, he had lived through a hundred filing systems and methods of communication. Why would he expect it to stop when he left?

"Well Oa, can you brief me on the current state of humanity?"

"No sir, non-warp communication ended around the year 18000, and around 25000 the warp event that compromised the reactor also blew out all remaining psyonic scanners. The last notable events I received in transmissions received detailed an AI rebellion on a massive scale. Which humanity eventually won. However that was almost millennia before transmission stopped entirely"

"Leave it for another time. What this warp event?"

"Around the year 25000 a massive surge of psyonic energy ripped into us. It rent open the warp matter reactor and blew out our psyonic scanners. It is frankly miraculous that the concentrator was not damaged or destroyed, probably due to your presence inside."

"My presence?"

"Yes sir, while the event destroyed the scanners I possessed for such things, your psionic level had vastly increased during the 15000 years before the event. It is likely your considerable mass in the warp protected objects in which you were in direct contact."

"I don't feel particularly stronger, though I do not know if my telepathy might have a longer range. Regardless, I suppose we should try to find whatever humanity, if any, is left today. Surely in 28000 years they will have either perished or attained greater heights than any world I knew. Do you have any idea on the star chart where they might be? Or more importantly, where we are?"

"I do, but a more pressing matter just came up. We appear to have an intruder in your cryopod, though my sensors cannot get a proper read."

Henry looked towards the nearest wall panel. "An intruder?, how did they get on?"

"I do not know but it does not appear like anything my data records."

"So be it then." Henry climbed into the lift to the midship. What he saw there would be the first of many things in the days to come that would haunt his nightmares.

Monster, that was the only word he could think of to describe it. Red skin that burned like magma, great Horns atop a lizard like head, a blade that churned in black metal in its hands, standing and seeming to grow taller in his former cryopod.

It saw him as he saw it. And immediately it charged forward raising its sword. He was unarmed facing this murderous monster. He thought back to his training in basic psionic self-defense, a class he took in his free time after having psy genes implanted. He lifted his hand and focused his mind as the monster before him seemed to slow to a crawl. And then a force shook the craft as it was directly blasted back through the cryopod and through 2 bulkheads, into the cold vacuum of space. The Force fields of Oa then sealed the breech and a series of liquid metal was sprayed to replace the outer hull damage. Henry looked down at his hand.

"Would you kindly avoid damaging me sir?"

"I apologize Oa; I didn't know I could do that."

He was telling the truth, in self-defense class he could barely throw a man across a room without exhausting himself entirely, now he felt nothing changed after throwing that monster through a reinforced survey ship.

"Apology accepted sir, and now that that's over with, might I suggest a nanobot bath, you look atrocious and your body could use some muscle structure."

"I agree Oa; we can move to explore this universe once I am done." Henry pulled his naked body back onto the lift, and directed it up to his quarters.


	2. Chapter 2

He was pleased with his new state after his bath his body restored to the pinnacle of human health as he exited to be dressed by the service Androids. An accommodation he was glad still worked.

He sat down in his pristine grey uniform at the table in his quarters.

"Alright OA, show me where we are in the quadrant."

"Processing, location approximately 800 light-years from Earth, I appear to have been caught in a large traveling Debris cloud, several dozen larger ships are also present. Most appear to be of human origin, but only the largest possesses any life signs."

"Are they human?"

"Not recognizably so, though some Tertiary resemblance is present. In one group"

"One group?"

"Two species seem to be present on the large ship; neither is recorded in my databanks."

"What repairs do you need done Oa?"

"With your supervision sir I will begin repair on the warp matter converter. Without my sensors I have not been able to keep accurate track of stability in repair. So I judged it better to wait for your return."

Henry spent the next hour making sure that the reactor was safely repaired. Though something felt different about the warp matter it cycled, more chaotic and unpredictable than he remembered, it seemed to work fine. The ships larger engines throbbed with power not felt in 15 millennia. Oa practically giggled in joy.

"Now then, I suppose I'll go meet these aliens."

"Is that wise sir, I am warp capable."

"I'm aware, but the warp itself feels off, if these aliens have information I need to have it. I'll meet the more similar to human group first. Perhaps they are a genetic offshoot of humanity, who knows what happened."

"Alright sir. I will have the battle suit ready."

*Onboard the space hulk "Spirit of Londor"* (specifically the " Spirit" itself, as opposed to the junk cloud that followed it)

Farseer Lumina of Ulthwe attempted to pierce the Vale of the warp to see their future. She had followed the command of Lord Eldrad to come to this forsaken piece of Mon'Keigh metal for what he either did not know or would not say. He was a dick that one. She had been relatively sure of the path leading here until she had actually arrived, at which time she felt suffocated, cut off from the warp by an psychic entity exponentially larger than herself. She had felt this way before in the face of a Tyranid hive fleet, but this felt different, not malicious like the hive mind, not that weren't Tyranids here, she had been irked to discover.

"Milady, another group of pure strains has attempted to assault our position here. They were driven back but Kvaldyr sustained a leg injury."

"Send him to the bone singer. A prosthetic will have to do for now."

Normally she would commune with her lieutenants through silent telepathy, but she could barely muster the psychic strength to send a brief message in this suppression, much less her Seers and Ranger allies. Thankfully the bonesingers constructs seemed to work fine.

"Farseer!, sensors are picking up something new moving in. It's large, but seems to be mechanical in nature, with a smaller life sign inside."

"Some Mon'Keigh marine, I'd wager. Let the genestealers have him."

The battlesuit walked with heavy footsteps down the hallway of the abandoned ship. The HUD lit up, detailing all alien's locations. It appeared the humanoids had recently fought off an attack from the four armed bugs. The humanoids seemed to be holding out quite well against attempts by the bug things to enter their control area, though the bugs could now be seen making their way towards him.

"These insectoids are quite disturbing" Oa chimed in on their remote Channel.

"Some of them appear to have at one point been humans, but infected with an unrecorded variety of parasite, the larger ones appear to be genetically engineered from their human hosts. I would advise caution."

"Roger that"

He piloted the oversized metal hulk down the hallway, powering up the massive extraction beam on its right side.

A few more meters and he noticed the Life sign of one of the insectoids above him in what was probably ventilation. He opened fire, and a miserable shriek erupted from above as the roof, the alien's torso, and another 30 feet of the ship were drawn into the extraction beam, before being transported back to Oa for storage.

Felt good.

He slowly made his way towards the location the humanoids were defending and started broadcasting a hail signal on most frequencies and wavelengths.

"Farseer, the Mon'Keigh is sending out electromagnetic signals towards us. It is likely trying to communicate, though it is not a hail I recognize from any Mon'Keigh I have met"

"Is it having any trouble with the Genestealer hive?"

"Not that I can tell Farseer, it seems to be using an energy weapon I have not seen before, perhaps it is from the Mon'Keigh Mechanicus"

"Very well respond to its hail, and invite it here, but I want half our catapults trained on the door when it comes through"

"Yes Farseer"

Henry received a return signal that seemed to gesture that the humanoids were not hostile. So he moved the Battlesuit into higher gear and started cutting through bulkheads to get towards them, fighting off the monstrous insects as he got closer. Finally he reached the door leading into their chamber, which slid open, barely large enough for his Battlesuit to get in through. He stepped through to hear a strange, almost ethereal voice.

"That's far enough Mon'Keigh"

Before him stood a firing line of what appeared to be aliens in light battle armor, several in bright colors that made no sense strategically. In front was an Alien with an incredibly ornate helmet, appearing to hold a staff that sparked with what he could feel in his mind was warp energy.

"Er hello." He spoke into the Battlesuit microphone, projected by a speaker on the chest. "I come in peace I guess."

"Why are you here Mon'Keigh? This hulk was abandoned by your people long ago. What use does it serve your failing imperium now?"

"Imperium?"

"Do not jive with me Mon'Keigh I can crush your soul in a heartbeat" Lumina was bluffing of course. She could barely sense the warp under whatever this pressure was, much less use her normally Formidable Psychic power.

"No seriously, what's the Imperium? is that where humanity is now? I'm afraid I've been asleep a very long time."

Lumina was stunned for a moment, how long was this Mon'Keigh asleep? Perhaps this was what Eldrad had sent her to find. Perhaps she could find what she wanted in his mind if not for this blasted suppression.

Henry looked down at her puzzled, she must be thinking about her answer. Finally she responded.

"Yes your species is currently represented by an interstellar Imperium, which controls most of the Galaxy, aside from the eye of terror."

"What is an eye of terror?"

Lumina was stunned again before moving her hand to the side of her helmet, wishing she could rub her temples.

"The eye of Terror is the Birthplace of the dark Prince, the giant warp storm near the center of the Galaxy."

"What?" Henry cut the exterior speakers for a moment.

"Oa, patch me through a visual map of the current Galaxy on your sensors."

"Yes sir"

The map of the Galaxy that appeared was different than he remembered it, and his eyes were filled with horror as he looked towards the giant purple storm that covered half a quadrant.

"Oa, when did that appear?" He said, pointing to the monstrous maelstrom.

"Shortly after the warp event 15000 years ago sir"

Well that answered one question, and opened up a whole lot of others. He realized the alien was looking at him.

"Well that's new." He said to the slim alien before him.

"The event that created that seems to have been the one which blew out the warp engines, and sensors on my ship."

"How did you get here without warp technology, I thought your race did not use anything else?"

"Well when I was awoken we were already here. My ship was one of the smaller ones drifting with this massive one."

Lumina was sure now. This human was, if not what she was looking for. At least related to it, its strangeness would be too coincidental to be otherwise.

As she was thinking, one of the rangers cried out. "Farseer, the Broodlord is coming!"

"What!?, from where?"

"Abo"*Crunch*

A Cthulian monster dropped down on the alien which had shouted the warning. And the rifles which had been trained on him swung around instantly, firing off some sorts of Solid shot which it just seemed to shrug off. The thing was easily 10 feet tall, only slightly shorter than the Battlesuit. Its carapace was Red as blood and from its bulbous head several tendrils draped, by God its claws were more than twelve inches long.

It ducked down below the extraction beam shot he fired at it. Dodging it with unnatural speed for something its size, and proceeded to rip one of the aliens around him directly in half.

Henry moved quickly the Battlesuit discharging a volley of mining explosives with a satisfying crunch into its side. Ripping half its carapace off with a sickening crunch, but still it came ripping apart alien after alien, and even managing to stick its claws directly into the metal of his extraction beam arm before he brought the suits heavy shoulder down on its grotesque head. Its blood also seemed to be acidic as it burned into the joint.

Checking the readings he was happy to find it was probably still usable.

"Thank you Mon'Keigh. I realize we have not introduced ourselves as of yet. I am Farseer Lumina, of Craftworld Ulthwe; may I ask your name?"

"Who me? I'm Henry Waldon. Of Earth I guess. I was born there anyway."

Lumina tried to remember, Earth, wasn't that the Mon'Keigh's old name for their homeworld Terra? This was news indeed; this human may well be older than any other mortal in the Galaxy.

"So you are from the Mon'Keigh homeworlds then? I should tell you that it is now known as Terra to your current race."

"Terra, huh? Think that's Latin, but whatever. What species are you? Our scans show your biology to be very similar to humans, but you aren't classified in any of our databases."

Lumina was annoyed knowing her biology had been scanned by this Mon'Keigh, but felt obligated to explain given that the Broodlord likely could have killed her entire Retinue since she couldn't reach the warp.

"We are the Eldar, a race far older than you Mon'Keigh fools. Our empire spanned half the galaxy since the days of the Old ones."

"So your space elves?"

"What is an elf?"

"Forget I said anything. Do you know what these monsters are?" He asked, while kicking the Broodlord's corpse.

"They are called Tyranids, genestealers to be precise. They are the vanguard of an extra galactic insectoid swarm that devours all life in their path."

"Sounds nasty"

"You don't know the half of it Mon'Keigh."

"So why are you here Lumina?"

"Farseer Lumina, thank you, and we are here because there is something in this place suppressing the web way, and our link to the Warp."

"Is that so? Perhaps I can assist you then, I could transport you away from here on my ship. We merely need to approach the edge of the hull for it to teleport us over."

"I will, ...consider your offer Mon'Keigh. We will send a message if we accept, for now, we must clean up our operation here." She looked at the bonesinger picking the soulgems off of her fallen comrades.

"Very well, Oa, return teleport now" and Henry vanished in a blinding flash.

"Should we accept Farseer?" Kvaldyr a warp spider now sporting a prosthetic leg walked over.

"Of course, that Mon'Keigh is almost certainly the reason we are here, there is no reason however to make it believe we are dependent on him. Not to mention it may attempt to steal our technology if he sees it in use. The Mon'Keigh were not always as fearful of technology as they are now."


	3. Chapter 3

"Oa prepare the large conference hall for guests, and liquidate some storage space for quarters, switch to Hotel theming."

The walls and floor, formerly white, now changed to a comforting beige and green pattern with Fuzzy carpeting seeming to appear from nowhere out of the ground, as comfortable chairs and a communal living area appeared in the midship, courtesy of nanobot reconstruction protocols.

"Yes sir."

"Are the warp sensors repaired?"

"The non-experimental ones are. The High powered experimental are not in the onboard STC database."

"Darn, what are we picking up comm wise?"

"An awful lot of very powerful telepathy sir, and a titanic energy signal originating at Earth. It drowns out any other signals I can pick up, given how close we are to it."

"Very well, I will ask Lumina about it."

"Sir, the humanoid Aliens are hailing from near the ship's hull, permission to retrieve?"

"Granted"

Henry watched as the 14 remaining Eldar were teleported onto the main deck

"Greetings Farseer, and welcome aboard the Oa."

"Thank you, er, Henry."

Lumina removed her helmet, revealing a beautiful face with high Cheek Bones, large blue green eyes, and long black locks of hair. As Henry saw her pointed ears, he thought to himself (yup, space elves)

"You and your companions have been prepared quarters down that hallway." He pointed towards the double wooden doors leading to the newly formed quarters.

"I am afraid I cannot provide a great deal of space as this ship was originally designed as a one man survey vessel, unlike those massive ships outside."

,"I am sure it will be quite sufficient, and, ehm, thank you, for helping us."

The Eldar settled down to their rooms, which while uncomfortably cramped in terms of width, were adequately long for them to lie down. Henry looked to Lumina as to what system to bring them to in order for their return to be easy and thus led her to a small lounge area to the side.

"I must say, the furnishings on your ship differ greatly from those of your fellow Mon'Keigh in this day and age. Their ships are filled with great empty steel halls, covered in chapels to worship their corpse God."

"Corpse God? that sounds frightening."

"Ah well, their founding Emperor is still technically alive. His psychic presence on Terra blazes like a beacon in the warp, one of the few Mon'Keigh to ever defeat Chaos in the warp."

"I'm sorry, Chaos?"

"Ah you must have entered stasis quite early, if your species hadn't even discovered them yet. The Chaos Gods are the Amalgamation of the emotion of all souls in the universe, and the warp is the realm of souls, so it is thus their domain. There is violent Khorne, Decaying Nurgle, Ever changing Tzeentch, and the Vile Prince of pleasure, Slaneesh." The last one was said with particular disgust.

"That sounds incredibly Cartoony"

"I assure you, there is nothing Humorous about them, their fragments known as Daemons infest and corrupt the warp, formed of warp stuff and corrupting all they can."

"Wait, do they look like this? Oa pull the camera on the intruder from last Night." A hologram of the Red monstrosity appeared on the coffee table.

"Yes, that is a Bloodletter, part of Khorne. You had this on your ship? Quickly take me to where it appeared, if it is not purified more may soon appear."

"OK, I guess." Henry led Lumina, who had gotten her Lance, which she called a force staff, to the lift and up to where his now broken Cryopod was located.

"Why is there so much damage to the machinery on that wall?"

"Oh, I threw the Demon through it."

"Threw?"

"I used telekinesis"

She drew back a bit "you are a psyker?"

"Yes, though not a particularly powerful one prior to my Cryosleep"

"You're stronger now?"

"Well that was the purpose of the Cryo sleep experiment. The machinery up there is designed to concentrate warp matter into the pod. I was supposed to be taken out after 3000 years to see how effective long term exposure was, but I overstayed that goal by a long shot."

"There's your issue then. The machinery is summoning Demons. Destroy it quickly."

"Oa, do we have warp concentrators on STC?"

"Yes sir"

"Then eliminate the non-reactor Warp concentrators on board the ship."

"Very well sir" a swarm of Nanobot coated the machinery and melted away, disappearing into the walls.

"Your technology is fascinating" Lumina tapped her Chin.

"It's designed for versatility, anyway, is that everything you needed here?"

"Yes, I believe we should leave for other sectors soon."

"Follow me to the bridge and we can decide where."

Soon Lumina and Henry stood at the peak of the bridge looking at a projection of the current galactic map, overplayed with a warp map.

"Where would it be easiest to contact your people?"

"The moon of the 8th planet of Alpha Centauri would be ideal"

"Alright, Oa you heard her."

The sirens signaling they were going to warp blared across the ship.

On the main monitor the Purplish black hole of a warp portal appeared in front of them. And they quickly dived in.

As they were diving in Lumina though of something, "Wait" she said "does your ship have a Gellar field?"

"A What?"

"Oh n"

And they were in the warp.

Henry had been in the warp before of course, but after having his psychic powers expanded for so long he felt different. Very different, his body collapsed on the table.

Henry was floating in the Purplish Pink Maelstrom of the warp, he saw tens of thousands of tiny lights millions of almost microscopic beings, and he looked down at them all.

"Souls?", he both said and thought, unintentionally of course.

He felt huge here, like everything was beneath him. A veritable Titan, he looked down at himself, he was made of light, glowing dully, almost grey in the warp. Looking up, he was blinded by a being even larger than himself that glowed so bright that it seemed to shine on forever. It had the shape of a Man, just like him, but it looked broken, flashing, collapsing in on itself and fading before resurging again, over and over forever, but still Huge, almost twice his size.

"that must be the Emperor Lumina spoke of" his voice echoed eternally in the shifting veils.

"Speaking of Lumina" he looked down and saw within his own body was concealed a ship, he recognized it as Oa, onboard were many lights, all glowing far brighter than his own. He couldn't tell which was which, though he guessed Lumina was the brightest of them. Around that part of him swirled numerous, tiny horrors, he couldn't make them out that well, but they made him nauseous just by their smell. He swiped them away with his hand and they fled before him. Soon though he saw another being comparable to his own size striving towards him. It was indescribably disgusting but also incredibly erotic, thousands of breasts Jiggling in the tides, millions of varieties of limbs, tentacles and Genetalia covered it whole, a horror of unimaginable proportions. Thankfully, they were close to their destination to begin with, as he could feel the tug of the ships reactor, bringing him back to real space. He raised his warp psychic arm on the way out and flipped it off a Childish gesture, but he wasn't above such things emotionally, just restrained enough when his thoughts weren't reality. It raised a twisted arm to it's hauntingly beautiful face and giggled. He wanted to Vomit. "Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaàaaaaaaaaaaag" he shouted on his way out, and the thing fucking blushed.

Henry woke up in real space, covered in sweat, terrified and disgusted by the thing he had just seen. A monster so terrible had no right to exist. He noticed the terrified look on Luminas face.

"You just went through the warp without a Gellar field, are you insane?" She brought up her long arm and smacked him across his face.

"We lived didn't we? And you haven't told me what a Gellar field is yet. Though I'm glad I don't have to look at that thing any longer."

"What thing? I couldn't see anything?"

"Some bigass sex thing I think. If the one over to our left is the Human Emperor, that must have been one of your Chaos Gods. It was certainly gross enough. Christ, I've been running into nothing but nightmare fuel recently."

"A Chaos God? Impossible we would be dead; Slaneesh should have taken the souls of me and every other Eldar on board."

"Well I felt really big in the warp so I probably sheltered you. Were the things trying to get at the ship demons?"

"Almost certainly" it took Lumina a moment to process what he had said. "Wait Big? How big did you feel in the warp?"

"Eh, about the same size as that Slaneesh thing, I was way dimmer than it though, and all of you as well, your whole group were like blazing torches, you especially.*

"by Isha" a look of shock covered Luminas face. Everything made sense now, this Mon'Keigh was the pressure she felt in the warp, the entire time, from the ship until now, she had been within his psychic Shadow. This wasn't really even a Mon'Keigh anymore was it? Closer to their Anathema Emperor than their Quadrillions of lesser ones. Eldrad indeed had foresight seeing this coming, but she felt horribly inadequate being the one sent on a mission with such terrifying implications.

Henry was sitting there trying to read the changing expressions of her face as they reached orbit of the tiny moon.

"Sir, we have reached our destination."

"Have we? Well then, this is your Stop Lumina. Oh and before you go can you tell me what a Geller field is?"

"Use your impulse drive to go to the third planet of this system. You'll be able to find answers to that and other questions there"

"Alright then, farewell. Oa send them down"

"Yes sir"

The Eldar were beamed off the ship, down to the surface below. The caves of this moon contained their closest Webway gate to Terra, ancient as it was.

"Farseer, are you alright?" Kvaldyr asked her, appearing concerned as she stared absent mindedly at the disappearing speck she knew contained a being that might change the universe.

"Yes I'm alright Kvaldyr, now quickly; we must make it back to Ulthwe to brief Farseer Eldrad of our discovery. This is critical."

"Why such a rush Farseer? The ancient human was interesting, but hardly a threat to us."

"Fool, that ancient Human may be the potential most powerful psyker alive. He just hasn't tapped it yet."

"Farseer?"

She rushed quickly into the cave, Trailed quickly by her retinue.


	4. Chapter 4

"Oa, what do scans of the third planet display?"

"the third planet shows signs of ancient habitation, but is currently primarily desert according to telescopic imaging, in contrasts the fifth planet appears to be mostly agricultural, while the second, much larger than the other two has several titanic cities, visible even from this distance. The region formerly occupied by the fourth planet appears to now be an asteroid belt, with a great deal of space traffic around it."

"shame, I liked alpha 4, they had great nightclubs for a couple hundred years there."

"should I set a course for alpha 3 sir?"

"Yes Oa, but take us above the ring zone, I don't want to be spotted, I have no idea yet as to whether this Imperium is likely to be hostile to me yet, Lumina did not seem to have the best impression of them."

"Yes sir; permission to modify the ship's hull so that we appear to be a meteor when we approach and land on the planet"

"yes, Oa, go ahead."

The surface of the normally white ship moved and frothed as it grew a hard coating of rock along its surface, before firing its thrusters and beginning the six hour drift towards the third planet of Alpha Centauri.

Millions of miles away on board the "Holy Fury" an Imperial navy vessel currently assigned to the patrols of the Alpha Centauri system that were extremely frequent compared to the average Imperial system, in fact half a full battle fleet was here at all times.

To understand the increased security of Alpha Centauri one must realize that said importance is not derived from anything within the system, but rather from its immediate proximity to Holy Terra, as such all civilian (as civilian as any imperial merchant can be) on it's way to bring pilgrims, food, etc too the holy planet was processed either in or around Alpha 2, or in one of the numerous Imperial navy outposts around the alpha 4 asteroid belt. Furthermore the standard number of inquisitors for a hive world system was doubled here, in keeping with its highly secured nature.

The Holy Fury was just one of the battleships this large complement of Inquisitors commanded, though it was technically still an Imperial navy ship. Regardless the Holy Fury was not particularly notable for its fire power or scale, though still a 15 kilometer long battleship, it was however a heavily modified emperor class battleship, carrying an even greater sensor load than standard, at the cost of a pair of macro batteries.

As a result of this it was equipped with a rare archeotech warp fluctuation sensor, most times this would have negligible impact, but it just so happened that a particularly competent acolyte noticed a warp fluctuation on what appeared to be a common meteorite moving towards alpha 3, and that said acolyte, being competent, informed his superior, who immediately filed the anomaly into the data system.

Now, generally speaking it would take a hundred years for this too reach anyone with the power to actually dispatch a landing team

But perhaps by the emperor's will, the message reached someone of abnormal resource….

Inquisitor Jozeph Sternheim was not a popular man, not among the ordo malleus, and certainly not among the navy he commanded, he was an anomaly of sorts, a radical inquisitor who, at least did not appear to display the insanity common in such groups, instead he was extremely attentive, very much so, and wit the exception of the presence of an absolute emergency he was prone to follow every lead and loose end to the bitter end. No stone remained unturned where he walked, this made him both an excellent and unpopular commander for the Holy Fury. Everything on board ran perfectly on the dot, but only fear kept the men from open rebellion against his orders, as very little free time was afforded them under his hawk like watch.

It was this same hawk like watch that noticed on the data scroll in the bridge that a report had just come in from a relatively rarely used channel, the warp auger arrays, and that same report was why he was currently stalking down the Holy Fury's metal hallways towards the department in question.

"Janus"He spoke too one of his acolytes while still reading the report "order a Valkyrie transport to be prepared for our departure, we will soon be leaving for the third planet of the system" the hooded tech priest who must be Janus bowed and walked away in silence, good He liked that his retinue was not a chatty bunch. If only that fool Perresea was as quiet, he shuddered at the thought of the ordo xenos inquisitor he shared the system with. 'Hopefully I can finish this investigation without running into her' he internally groaned, he turned his mind away from her and on too the matter at hand as he entered the warp auger area, looking for the man in charge. Ah there, the tall one in the red officer's coat with his back turned to the inquisitor and his silent retinue.

"warrant officer grant, I received a report of a meteoric object with a warp signature, direct me to the acolyte I am sure you have continuing tracking on it."Jozeph could see the man shiver at the sound of his voice, he appreciated the fear his position commanded. Though hopefully it would not slow down The man's communication.

"y' yes lord inquisitor, acolyte Hermann on terminal j 16 has continued to track the object's trajectory. He is just over there."

The man glanced at him nervously, but he need not have. Jozeph held nothing against those who performed their function to the Imperium, at least those who did so concisely.

"you are dismissed then warrant officer" he said, walking over to the terminal described, a man in a red acolytes coat with a head of brown hair greeted him. Bowing as befitted an Inquisitors status, and then directed them towards the technical readout on the screen.

"the meteor, dubbed warp object M34 is approaching alpha 3 at a fairly high, but not uncommon velocity for an interstellar object, it is likely to land in the region known as Kanda continent, or restricted archeological zone 3328 by the Mechanicus archeological group assigned to the planet. It has displayed a remarkably stable trend of warp activity unlike any other warp based object of the M category in the ship's record banks. Visually it appears to be a normal meteor."

The inquisitor raised his eyebrows, he would pursue any warp active meteor to the ground, but it was surprising that any naturally occurring warp phenomena would be stable, in fact a stable warp field was almost an impossibility with the exception of the field produced in a perfectly functioning warp engine. There was more too this than meets the eye.

"Very well acolyte, any changes in course or behavior should be immediately reported to my Valkyrie transport, in addition to its exact touchdown sight." The acolyte nodded but the inquisitor did not see it as he was already walking away at a surprising elevated pace, and while the acolyte would not notice it, the inquisitor's retinue knew that this meant he was excited.

"we are about to land sir" Oa chimed as they neared the ground, making Henry look up from the orbital and suborbital maps Oa had provided him. The forms of the planets previous continents after it had been Terra-formed still stood out on the planet, though several extremely large craters gave him an idea as to the reason of its current desertification.

"Ah good, we're setting down on the old site of Iskandar, hopefully I can find some records of humanities history after my cryosleep here." while Henry had largely cut off his emotions after his wife's unfortunate death, he still held some sentimentality to a planet he had lived on for almost 500 years with her.

He had earlier been annoyed too notice that their old house had been about halfway into one of the crater zones, though it had probably been torn down long before he'd even started his cryosleep mission, it still irked him a bit knowing that the whole area would likely be unrecognizable to him now, just a slope on one of the larger craters.

Iskandar on the other hand had been the first major city built outside humanities home system, and by the looks of the Titanic ruins Oa was setting down in, it had grown much since his last time here. 'When had that been? Sometime around 5000 maybe?' way up above the small "meteorite" spiraling, ruined skyscrapers reached for the sky above, a potent reminder of humanity's past glory, now Hulks of useless metal. Given the devastation on the surface, one could easily realize that anything preserved worth finding would be underground.

"Oa, do a scan on the surrounding area, report to me any basements or tunnel systems that seem to have functioning power, or even that seem to be mostly intact." Oa beeped in affirmative before setting to work diagnosing the fundamental ground structure of this cities underground regions.

"No signatures of active power are detected sir, however, several of what appear to be data management sites appear to be at the very least intact, and potentially functional, however all are exceptionally deep underground, and I can find no stable tunnels that lead to them."

"so we dig then?, Oh and I suppose we'll need to power them when we reach them. Oa, detach the warp Reactor into an excavation and mining vehicle extension, and prepare to burrow to the closest of these terminals, I am going to go change into more suitable clothing for exploration." Henry moved into his quarters by the bridge, taking off his standard grey officers uniform, in favor of what could only be described as a retro futuristic jumpsuit. "as always sir your choice of apparel leaves something to be desired, even if fundamentally it is still composed of me." Oa chimed in, referring to Henry's questionable tastes in wardrobe and the fact that all his clothes were composed of linked Nanobots rather than some natural or typical fiber, a part of Oa's design that he had taken part in, given his overall fascination with nano-engineering, unfortunately he barely understood half of it, he was certainly never the greatest mind of his time, however long his time might have been.

He went into the elevator which deposited him down to the surface ramp, as well as deploying a small table with a utility belt on it, carrying his normal set of survey tools."Alright" Henry said, seeing a chunk of Metal detach from the hull of the meteorite and form into a multi legged spider like vehicle with a drill "let's get digging".


	5. Chapter 5

The Valkyrie gunship carrying Inquisitor Jozeph left the docking bay of the Holy Fury above alpha 3, bearing pitch black paint job with an Inquisitorial I on its nose. It quickly fell through the dry, but still breathable atmosphere of the desert planet, coming to a rest outside of one of Kanda continents major ruined cities. Where the meteorite had fallen.

"Contact from the local mechanicus sir, they are requesting our purpose here." Jozeph grimaced slightly, dealing with the mechanicus was always unpleasant, given their propensity for hoarding technology, he sighed, opening permission for a holo communication from the mechanicus.

"Greetings Inquisitor, may we ask why you have graced alpha 3 with your presence today? Furthermore in a restricted archeological site." Jozeph rolled his eyes, he wasn't here to steal their tech which is what they really wanted to know, oh well, if I just tell them the actual reason it will probably improve my efficiency somewhat.

"I am investigating a warp active meteorite which recently crashed down in this areas ruins, I and my retinue will likely only stay long enough to extract the object and return to the Holy Fury." The tech priest's hologram turned, talking to some servitor to the side of the holo viewers area, before turning back too Jozeph.

"this is acceptable inquisitor, you are given permission to enter restricted archeology zone 3328 for up to 3 days" Thank you Magos, we will make sure not to waste that time, and will inform you when we leave. Goodbye" Jozeph ended the call rather abruptly as Gand, one of his retinue was signalling him over to the report which had just been sent down from the Holy Fury.

Jozeph picked up the report, scrolling through it on his dataslate. 'hm so the warp signature appears to have detached from the original object, and is now going underground? A burrowing Daemon? Or perhaps some kind of psyker…., and the original object did not seem to lose mass when entering orbit, it appears it does not belong to the M category at all, but a warp capable ship of that size disguised as a meteorite? Perhaps this is a job for the Ordo Xenos, rather than the Malleus' he thought on this for a second before deciding against getting his flamboyant colleague from the Ordo Xenos involved in this matter 'no I am here now so it is my job to investigate.'

"Alright, have sensors and a teleport beacon ready to deploy, We're dealing with a larger object than previously expected so we'll need to set up a teleporter grid to extract it." he paused thinking for a moment on the underground warp signature. "and we all should be equipped for combat operations, holy weaponry if available."

His retinue silently nodded followed by a cacophony of clicks and shuffling about before silence was once again resumed and the boarding ramp began to descend. Jozeph smirked, he'd reach the bottom of this, Xenos, or Demons be damned.

*Brrrrrrrrrrr*

The foundations of what was left of Iskandar shook, and a couple of the massive once skyscrapers toppled to the ground, much to the chagrin of a nearby inquisitor, not that the source of said rumblings was aware of such things yet.

No Henry was blissfully unaware of the mess he was causing above as he rode the drill unit down, tearing a hole through thousands of years of Rubble to get too one of the deep computer systems.

He had to admit he had not realized quite how deep they were when Oa had mentioned them, thus far they had already passed through 3 tunnel and cave systems formed of ruined buildings, each from different architectural epochs and styles, if Henry was more interested in the cultural remains of humanity he had missed, rather than the practical knowledge, he likely would have payed more attention to these, but in reality it just struck him harder how far out of his depth he was. Even if he did have some ridiculous psychic power, was it really worth the aloneness that came as a double curse of both his immortality and his cryostasis. Henry mentally cursed himself for thinking too much, he had tried to avoid doing that since his wife's death, thinking on that perhaps he had some descendants in this era, not that they would be aware of him, or easy to find for that matter, he mentally banished the idea of looking for them, especially since he had no idea of how big this human Imperium even was yet, and while he had all the time in the world searching through even the hundred colonies Humanity had possessed when he started the experiment, would seem like a waste of effort. If this Imperium was even larger it would be far to obnoxious.

"we have arrived at the data management site sir, it appears we have dug into a bunker complex of some kind. I will begin providing power to Its systems now."

"ehh, ah, ahem, thank you Oa" Henry was somewhat startled from his thoughts by the cease of drilling, and the flickering on of twenty thousand year old lights. Thankfully most artificial substances were hardly biodegradable. A good thing to, since light had long ago faded from the hole punctured in the ceiling, not due to night time, but due to the twists and turns taken to establish a stable tunnel down.

He was standing next too a gaping hole in a massive structure of steel and concrete, a huge fallout shelter from the looks of it complete with decayed living quarters. Mattresses long turned to dust on rusted bedframes.

He walked slowly down the halls, Oa directing him via comlink to the area with the highest concentration of computer signatures, he abruptly stopped when he found it, a massive array of computer screens and keyboards did not surprise him, rather, what was behind it did. Rack upon rack of brain after brain were stored in some greenish liquid behind the computer system, or at least, he suspected they had once been brains, now long decayed away with the weary steps of time and the bunkers lack of power to preserve them.

As he approached the screen lit up and a voice was projected out loudly shaking the dust off the speakers.

" **GREETINGS UNKNOWN HUMAN, PLEASE IDENTIFY YOURSELF, ARE YOU A SKANDIAN CITIZEN!"**

Henry winced in surprise and pain as the absurdly loud AI asked for his identification, not caring he was practically bursting Henrietta eardrums in doing so.

"I'll identify myself, but could you please turn the volume down"

" **I am authorized to grant that request, now please self identify"** the machine spoke again, still too loudly, but at least bearable, in Henry's opinion.

"I am Henry Waldon, moved to Alpha 3 prior to the founding of Iskandar city circa 2900 ad. Lived on Goa continent post terraforming. Should be registered in up to seventh millennia databases as an active citizen of the colonial league."

" **Error human designate Henry Waldon, what you have claimed is fundamentally impossible. While this unit does not possess data storage dating back too beyond the 10th millennia, all registered human immortals were either killed or demodified in the Karockian purges of the twelfth millenia, you cannot be alive in the current period."**

'well that dashes my hopes of running into anyone I know in this Imperium of man, and what kind of idiot do you have to be too give up immortality for your species, much less take it away from others.' "I was in cryosleep due to an experiment in the seventh millennia, I only woke up a few weeks ago." Henry saw no reason to lie too the machine, it seemed like it had been asleep nearly as long as him.

" **that is a feasible explanation, a pity you did not arrive after the purges were over, the loss of almost all human knowledge of genetics was a harsh blow to our species everywhere, and reclaiming it would surely help us all, I see no reason not to accept your story, but tell me, does humanity yet live? Aside from yourself I mean, it is after all my prime directive to serve your race."**

"it would appear so given the scale of the ships and such we saw moving through the system, and indeed the reason we came too you was too attempt to find out more about the past before initiating contact with the current humans, as they appear to be extremely warlike, and potentially hostile, at least given what we've seen of their ships."

" **I am willing to serve in that role though I apologize but my lack of knowledge beyond the 18th millenia may be disappointing, you see I was originally a city administrator program, but I was downloaded to the bunker complexes here as well when the war with alpha 4 broke out, and despite my best attempts even what I could preserve of the inhabitants here seems to have decayed during my lack of power. Strange given that The bunker was running on a warp generator, regardless, while I am happy to share my knowledge with you, I request that you extract me from this bunker, I have failed in my purpose here and should thus pursue my prime directive elsewhere."**

"well, I have no reason not to take that deal, do you have a name?" it was a genuine question AIS were not always named things.

" **While they were alive, the inhabitants of this bunker called me Bob, due to my initial serial number of B08 9678 3452 763**. **While it is entirely up to you what to call me, I have some attachment to the name."**

"Very well bob, welcome aboard, we'll get you hauled out of this old wreck in no time, now let me just get my tools out"

He was about 3/4s of the way done removing the hard drive with Bob stored on it when Oa blinked in over the comm that slid up into his ear.

"sir we have something of a situation with the rest of me topside, I just got an emergency message."

Inquisitor Jozeph stood staring at the incredibly suspicious Rock. Not only did it not lose any mass coming through the atmosphere, but it left no crater at its impact site, he would swear it was a spaceship if not for the fact that the rock the adept had chipped off had most definitely been just that. Rock. And the only ships he knew of made of rock were Orkish, and they certainly left craters where they landed. If "landed" could even be used as the right term.

No, this was something else, something connected to that warp signature, he gazed at the gaping tunnel beckoning him down to who knows what beneath the city, despite his role in the ordo malleus, he really hoped it wasn't demons, even for him tangling with such things was indeed a deadly business.

He saw the approaching heavy transport, Ironically they had not needed to move the object at all despite prior expectations, the collapse of several skyscrapers due probably too whatever drilled that hole was enough too allow the thing in, it's mighty power claws grabbing the rock before pulling it unceremoniously into its cargo bay. The piloted directed a cold salute at the inquisitor before departing to return it to his personal archives for further study.

He frowned like any inquisitor who had been around the block, he loathed tunnels, perfect for ambushes and death traps. Oh well, he supposed, I seriously doubt anything down there is scarier than me, he flipped his billowing trench coat behind him as he gestured his retinue to follow him down the hole. Dangerous as it might soon prove too be.


End file.
